In Nature's Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing and Illustration, 1780-1930 [Hardcover]

Barbara T. Gates (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0226284441 | ISBN-13: 978-0226284446 | Edition: 1

From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, hundreds of British women wrote about and drew from nature. Some—like the beloved children's author Beatrix Potter, who produced natural history about hedgehogs as well as fiction about rabbits—are still familiar today. But others have all but disappeared from view. Barbara Gates recovers these lost works and prints them alongside little-known pieces by more famous authors, like Potter's field notes on hedgehogs, reminding us of better known stories that help set the others in context.

The works contained in this volume are as varied as the women who produced them. They include passionate essays on the protection of animals, vivid accounts of travel and adventure from the English seashore to the Indian Alps, poetry and fiction, and marvelous tales of nature for children. Special features of the book include a detailed chronology placing each selection in its historical and literary context; biographical sketches of each author's life and works; a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature; and over sixty illustrations.

An ideal introduction to women's powerful and diverse responses to the natural world, In Nature's Name will be treasured by anyone interested in natural history, women, or Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The hibernating trance is intirely [sic] under the animal's own control, and only in a secondary degree dependant [sic] on the weather.... [The hedgehog] closes its eyes & holds its breath, occasionally it catches a breath in spite of itself with a sobbing gasp. The process looks difficult and highly uncomfortable; and the animal is very cross if interrupted...." - Beatrix Potter, from "Hedgehogs" "In Nature's Name, Barbara Gates's splendid new anthology, is packed with treasures and discoveries. Learned, lavishly illustrated and meticulously annotated, the book is bound to appeal to a range of readers, from feminist scholars to historians of science, from students of Romanticism, Victorianism and modernism to lovers of what one of the nineteenth-century authors represented here described as that 'charming beautifier Dame Nature.' " - Sandra M. Gilbert, coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women

From the Inside Flap

From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, hundreds of British women wrote about and drew from nature. Some—like the beloved children's author Beatrix Potter, who produced natural history about hedgehogs as well as fiction about rabbits—are still familiar today. But others have all but disappeared from view. Barbara Gates recovers these lost works and prints them alongside little-known pieces by more famous authors, like Potter's field notes on hedgehogs, reminding us of better known stories that help set the others in context.

The works contained in this volume are as varied as the women who produced them. They include passionate essays on the protection of animals, vivid accounts of travel and adventure from the English seashore to the Indian Alps, poetry and fiction, and marvelous tales of nature for children. Special features of the book include a detailed chronology placing each selection in its historical and literary context; biographical sketches of each author's life and works; a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature; and over sixty illustrations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226284441
• ISBN-13: 978-0226284446
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,013,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)